China's assistance benefits whole society of Cambodia? ... Dream on!

Chinese assistance to Cambodia has so far led to the strengthening of Hun Xen's autocratic and dictatorial regime, as well as to the demise of democracy in Cambodia. The same Chinese assistance to the Khmer Rouge regime in the 70s led to the killing of more than 2 million Cambodians!!!

China's assistance benefits whole society of Cambodia: Cambodian DPM

August 14, 2010
Xinhua

China's aid to Cambodia contributes to the country's social and economic development, and significant reduction in poverty, said Sok An, deputy prime minister, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"The relations between Cambodia and China, I could say without hesitation is very good," Sok An said. "China is one of the main development partners of Cambodia and has provided significant assistance to Cambodia."

"Most of China's assistance is for infrastructure development, such as construction and repairs of roads and bridges and for other important development projects such as irrigation system, expansions of river port, electricity distributions, and many others," said Sok An.

Moreover, China has also assisted Cambodia's human resources development through providing scholarships to deserving Cambodian students and government officials to study in China.

Sok An, also the minister of Council of Ministers, said that " the roads and bridges have strategic role to play in facilitating local and regional transport and an access to remote areas, so goods and services can move faster from one place to another. This in turn leads to price reduction, benefiting consumers."

He pointed out that Chinese assistant projects helped to attract more investment from all sectors to different parts of Cambodia, which can create jobs for people there. So they can generate more income to support their families.

At the same time, these assistant projects (roads and bridges) have promoted tourism "which is important for employment creation and for enhancing national and sub-regional activities and thus economic growth as the transportation cost is reduced."

Besides, these roads and bridges have connected people from more developed areas to less developed ones; for example, providing faster access to education and health services, the deputy prime minister said.

China-funded construction of roads to Preah Vihear Temple unambiguously plays crucial role in opening up Preah Vihear area, he said. It both helps promote and preserve Cambodia's rich cultural heritage and attracts national and international tourists to the area.

The deputy prime minister said China's aid, with the participation of private sector, has resulted in "impressive economic growth, reaching double digits of 11 percent during 2004- 2007; and significant reduction in poverty from 49 percent in 1994 to 35 percent in 2004, to 30 percent in 2007 and to 27.4 percent in 2008 and it is even lower today."

Sok An during the interview cited some mega projects funded by China, including: Building of the Office of the Council of Ministers; Prek Kdam bridge; Prek Tamak bridge; Cambodia-China Friendship Se Kong bridge; National Road No. 57 (Pailin); National Road No. 62 from Kampong Thom to Tbeng Meanchey, Preah Vihear; National Road No.8, connecting Krek and Meun Chey; and National Road No. 76 from Senmonorom (Mondul Kiri) to Dakdam.

The China's assistance to Cambodia started on 1950s, including grants and loans. Since then 110 projects have been implemented, includes providing large quantities of commodities.

"In the meantime, China's assistance is effective and the implementation of the China-funded projects in Cambodia is made with minimal procedural requirements," he stressed.

Sok An said that Cambodia needs more financial and technical support for further development, so he hopes that the bilateral cooperation relations between Cambodia and China will be further strengthened.

China Donated $1 billion to the Khmer Rouge Regime Before 1979

14-02-2008
By Chan Chamnan
Moneaksekar Khmer
Unofficial Translation from Khmer by KRtrial.info

After almost 30 years following the fall of the Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime, the hope for justice of the surviving victims seems to begin to glimmer through. However, the delayed process of the tribunal has come under strong fire. Up to the present time, five former Khmer Rouge leaders and those most responsible for the regime remain behind bars awaiting the trial of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Yet, it is not sure whether the trial which has been planned to get underway in June 2008 will be able to start.

Director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), collecting documents and evidence of the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime for 10 years for the special tribunal, claims that “evidence” is not a problem for the court. "For the Cambodian side, corruption has always been the case which creates obstacles to block the process of the trial. For the UN side, problems such as bureaucracy, expanded work, and delay have become the norm in every international court,” criticised Youk Chhang. He said that the DC-Cam has given the Khmer Rouge tribunal 30,000 pages of evidential documents that the court can use them officially.

Lao Monghay, senior researcher of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, acknowledges that the practice of the legal procedure does take a long time in a court which employs the international standards. However, he blames…..some countries such as China and Vietnam, which stayed behind the Khmer Rouge regime before and after 1979.

"The conflict between the Khmer Rouge and Vietnam might have created "spies". The charged people such as Ieng Sary, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan might have known about the presence of those Vietnamese spies or agents in Cambodia," said Lao Monghay.

Lao Monghay claimed that China had given a donation of $1,000 million to Democratic Kampuchea before 1979 and another $1,000 million after 1979 in order to fight against the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. Currently, China is giving loans to Cambodia more than donations while both the donations and loans greatly influence the politics of Cambodia.

Reach Sambath, Khmer Rouge tribunal's spokesman, has overruled the “allegations” and explained the efforts made by the Co-Investigating Judges. He claimed that the "real" trial of former Tuol Sleng Prison Chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, charged with crimes against humanity, will be held in June 2008. "We cannot explain all the judicial process. We cannot tell how many people and where we have interviewed nor can we tell who they are. We can only say that we are working everyday and we have done a lot," said Reach sambath.

Chea Leang, Cambodian Co-Prosecutor of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, claimed about the discovery of Nuon Chea's responsibility for Democratic Kampuchea by the Co-Investigating Judges. "On April 19, 1976, Nuon Chea was appointed president of the Standing Committee of the People's Representative Assembly. From September to October, 1976, Nuon Chea was the acting Prime Minister. Nuon Chea was appointed to be in charge of party's actions such as social affairs, culture, military and education. Nuon Chea led the internal and "external" structures and coordinated the S-21 Security Center and other zones.

According to Reach Sambath, the Khmer Rouge tribunal will continue from 2008 through 2011 by spending up to $170 million. The original budget was $56.3 million over 3 years from 2006 to 2008.

The Khmer Rouge tribunal was established after a tough negotiation between the Cambodian government and the United Nations from 1997 [to 2006]. At first, the United Nations wanted the court to use the international court system while the Cambodian government insisted on using the national court system, which the public lacks confidence on its independence and transparency.

Eventually, the two sides agreed on mixing the Cambodia’s court system with international standards of justice to try former Khmer Rouge leaders. Then, the Co-Judges and Co-Prosecutors started their work in mid-2006. It cannot be said what obstacles the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia is going to face next since it has so far gone through many of them.

The obstacles the Khmer Rouge tribunal has already faced include the disagreement on the Internal Rules between Cambodian side and the UN side, the admission fee of the Cambodian Bar Association, the denial of Nuon Chea’s defence lawyer, Victor Koppe, to represent his client in the appeal hearing on February 4, 2008, and the presence of the civil parties in the hearings of Nuon Chea, which has made the Pre-Trial Chamber spend a lot of time to discuss the legality of those civil parties or victims.

The national and international communities want the trial of the jailed former senior Khmer Rouge leaders to begin soon to catch up with those late people so that in the dock they can reveal the truth of the mass killings during the Khmer Rouge regime. In contrast, if it is still delayed, those aging former senior Khmer rouge leaders might die before the trial takes place as their health conditions are deteriorating now. Therefore, the United Nations and the Cambodian government are obliged to make the trial possible soon and not to make the great expenditure become useless.